Two months ago torrential rain caused a massive slip at a Wellington property, and the six tenants say the landlord has done nothing to fix the mess.
Since being contacted by Newshub, the landlord has agreed to reduce the rent for tenants going forward.
Max Te Rito lives in the house and says that when the slip happened "I saw a big as flash of light, followed by what I can only describe as loud crashes. I came outside, a lamp post had fallen down, with exposed wires everywhere and it brought down this retaining wall as well. Luckily the house wasn't damaged."
Mr Te Rito and his flatmates used to hang out in the front yard after work or uni, but that's not an option anymore. They pay $1050 a week to live in the house, and can't access their stairway.
"The whole stairway, we can't get down that anymore so we have to use the neighbour's stairwell and cut across the front of their house."
The tenants want financial compensation for both the time the "garden" has been in its current state, and during whatever construction it will require to be fixed.
"Initially he offered us one free week's rent compensation but we didn't feel that was enough considering it's affecting our daily lives still."
Mr Te Rito says they've struggled to get answers from their landlord and they're not sure if the slip site will be repaired.
He claims the landlord has been "saying he's going to talk to insurance and never getting back".
He issued them 14 days notice when they hadn't been paying rent, "so we have to end up paying full rent".
The landlord said in a statement that from now on he was offering a $180 weekly discount for their rent.
He told Newshub: "Today, the offer has been reconfigured to be exactly what the tenants have asked for in good faith. In the meantime, the landlord is at the mercy of EQC time constraints and (it's) out of the hands of the landlord."
But Mr Te Rito says that's not good enough and he'll push for a discount for the weeks since the slip.
Newshub.
